The invention relates to a terminal arrangement for connecting an electrical conductor to electric equipment. More specifically, the invention relates to a terminal arrangement that permits two conductors to be easily fastened to a terminal with both conductors in contact with the terminal.
It is well known to couple electrical conductors to terminals of various electric equipment in a releaseable manner. For example, motors, transformers, generators, fuses, circuit breakers, switches and other electric equipment have screw terminals for releasably attaching electrical conductors thereto. Typically, such terminals consist of a relatively flat strip or plate having a hole formed therein. A screw is threaded through the hole and pressure plate is disposed around a shaft of the screw between the terminal and a head of the screw. An end of the conductor is disposed between the pressure plate and the terminal and the screw is tightened to push the pressure plate against the conductor and thus clamp the conductor between the pressure plate and the terminal. Often the conductor is a wire with a lug of a predefined shape attached to an end thereof and the lug is clamped against the terminal. The pressure plate can be omitted and the end of the conductor can be clamped between the head of the screw and terminal.
In the conventional screw terminals of the type described above, if two conductors are to be connected to a single terminal, the two conductors are stacked on one another and clamped against the terminal. Accordingly, only one of the conductors is directly in contact with the terminal. This results in the full terminal current being transmitted through the single joining surface between the conductor adjacent the terminal and thus excessive heating can occur because of the minimized area through which current flows. Further, current flow through the conductors may be undesirably uneven. Also, the conductors often are not are securely clamped against the terminal because of the stacked arrangement thereof. Further, when one conductor is to be removed from the terminal, both conductors must be removed and the conductor to be attached to the terminal must be repositioned in a clamping area. If two separate screws are provided in a terminal for connecting two conductors thereto, the terminal becomes relatively large and complex and the conductors may interfere with one another.